Lightweight Appliance for Content Retrieval

1. A method for lightweight retrieval of content, comprising: receiving, at a server having an in-memory index, a request to retrieve a photograph from a storage system, wherein the photograph includes image content and the storage system is different and distinct from the sever; interpreting the request at the in-memory index, wherein the in-memory index identifies a hierarchical data structure associated with the request, the hierarchical data structure comprising metadata associated with the requested photograph; retrieving the metadata for the requested photograph, wherein the metadata resides on a solid state drive (“SSD”); identifying a source at the storage system, the source comprising one of a multi-image container file on a hard disk drive (“HDD”) and a photo cache on the SSD, wherein the multi-image container file has a system-wide fixed size based on a user behavior; determining an offset for the image content within the multi-image container file from the metadata, wherein the offset is associated with a node in the hierarchical data structure; retrieving the image content from the source; and displaying the image content and associated metadata on a display.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the request is a Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”).

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the interpreting the request includes determining a photo name and a group name.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the retrieving the image content from the source includes retrieving a list of multi-image container files.

5. A system for lightweight retrieval of content, comprising: a display; and a hardware processor configured to receive a request to: receive, at a server having an in-memory index, a request to retrieve a photograph from a storage system, wherein the photograph includes image content and the storage system is different and distinct from the sever; interpret the request at the in-memory index, wherein the in-memory index identifies a hierarchical data structure associated with the request, the hierarchical data structure comprising metadata associated with the requested photograph; retrieve the metadata for the requested photograph, wherein the metadata resides on a solid state drive (“SSD”); identify a source at the storage system, the source comprising one of a multi-image container file on a hard disk drive (“HDD”) and a photo cache on the SSD, wherein the multi-image container file has a system-wide fixed size based on a user behavior; determine an offset for the image content within the multi-image container file from the metadata, wherein the offset is associated with a node in the hierarchical data structure; retrieve the image content from the source; and display the image content and associated metadata on a display.

6. The system as recited in claim 5 , wherein the request is a Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”).

7. The system as recited in claim 5 , wherein the interpreting the request includes determining a photo name and a group name.

8. The system as recited in claim 5 , wherein the retrieving image content from the determined source includes retrieving a list of multi-image container files.

9. A computer program product for lightweight retrieval of content, comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions embodied therein for: receiving, at a server having an in-memory index, a request to retrieve a photograph from a storage system, wherein the photograph includes image content and the storage system is different and distinct from the sever; interpreting the request at the in-memory index, wherein the in-memory index identifies a hierarchical data structure associated with the request, the hierarchical data structure comprising metadata associated with the requested photograph; retrieving the metadata for the requested photograph, wherein the metadata resides on a solid state drive (“SSD”); identifying a source at the storage system, the source comprising one of a multi-image container file on a hard disk drive (“HDD”) and a photo cache on the SSD, wherein the multi-image container file has a system-wide fixed size based on a user behavior; determining an offset for the image content within the multi-image container file from the metadata, wherein the offset is associated with a node in the hierarchical data structure; retrieving the image content from the source; and displaying the image content and associated metadata on a display.

10. The computer program product as recited in claim 9 , wherein the request is a Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”).

11. The computer program product as recited in claim 9 , wherein the interpreting the request includes determining a photo name and a group name.

12. The computer program product as recited in claim 9 , wherein the retrieving image content from the determined source includes retrieving a list of multi-image container files.